Automating Puzzle Creation

David Leithauser , United States

Creating a program that generated word search puzzles enabled me to have my computer make money for me in a creative way.

Although I have a degree in electrical engineering, I also majored in physics and marine enginering. I have a broad background in science and engineering.

About 20 years ago, I read an advertisement from a new puzzle magazine that planned to publish 50 word search puzzles every month. They offered to pay independent writers $12.00 for each word search puzzle.

Rather than try to create these puzzles by hand, I programmed my old PC to load in words from a dictionary file and automatically generate word search puzzles. Since the program generated the puzzles and solutions and saved them directly to typesetting machine compatible files on floppy disks, the company loved it.

I became the company's sole provider of word search puzzles. For about a year, I was earning about $600 per month. To be more precise, I let my computer earn money for me every day while I had my dinner. Unfortunate, the magazine folded after about a year.

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